Grampy’s Corner store will no longer be allowed to stay open 24 hours a day.

The City Council by a five-to-four vote Tuesday night adopted a motion by its Police and License Committee to deny the owners of the convenience store/gas station a permit that would allow them to continue conducting business from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m.

Grampy’s is located at the corner of High and Weir streets and has a reputation as a magnet for crime.

The most infamous incident occurred last June when 17-year-old Tigan Hollingsworth was chased down and stabbed to death behind a nearby house after a confrontation that originated in Grampy’s parking lot.

Grampy’s owners, brothers Alie and Jamal Soufan, said they depend on staying open 24-7 in order to make a living. They also argued that since buying the business eight years ago their right to stay open round-the-clock has been grandfathered in.

But Taunton Police Chief Edward Walsh said that’s not the case, and that the city ordinance requiring a permit had simply not been enforced up until this point.

The brothers, after the three-person committee unanimously denied their request -- but before the full council had a chance to cast its vote -- accused councilors of exhibiting ethnic bias.

“All five of the Americans before us were approved, but when they heard one accent they said no,” Jamal Soufan, 47, said.

The Soufan brothers are Lebanese nationals, they said.

Walsh said only two of the five businesses in question were granted a 24-hour permit, including Broadway Sunoco and Joe’s Diner., the latter of which, he said, will have to come back in two months for a review of police calls of service to that location.

The others, Bobby’s Place pub, Frank’s Good Time Lounge and McGrath’s Café, needed the permit despite the fact that they never stay open 24 hours straight, Walsh said.

Walsh said the Soufans have been selling items at the front counter commonly used by crack cocaine dealers and users. Those items include a common scrubbing pad, baking soda and plastic baggies.

Marilyn Edge, the tobacco control coordinator for the Southcoast Tobacco Control commission, said that the store also sells so-called love roses, a cheap glass novelty commonly used as a crack pipe.

Edge said she previously spoke to one of the Soufan brothers about selling items that attract drug users. His response, she said, was that he has “a very good relationship with the cops.”

Alie Soufan, during his testimony to the committee, drew an agitated response from Jason Buffington, who told him that he “didn’t need to be lectured” by Soufan about the state of the economy.

“I rattled their feathers and they punished me for it,” Soufan later said. “They don’t like being challenged.”

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The permit request could be taken up again and reconsidered at the next council meeting.

Tuesday’s meeting drew a crowd of residents opposing the granting of the permit. Some of them broke out into applause when the Soufans were criticized.

But Olga Miranda was inconsolable and crying after the vote. Miranda, 39 said that when she lost her construction job the Soufans hired her back on a part-time basis.

She said she was counting on working the deli counter from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. to extend her hours.

“They took me back when I lost my job, and told me I’d be able to work extra hours,” she said, before she broke down and walked away.